Five correctional officers have been arrested and forty mobile phones seized in an ongoing crackdown in the country’s correctional centres.

That’s according to a statement from the National Security Ministry today.

It says 36 phones were seized at the Tower Street Correctional Centre and an additional four were seized at the Tamarind farm facility over the weekend.

It says three inmates have also been arrested and facing prosecution.

The investigation is being handled by the Major Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, MOCA.

The statement says Sim cards an iPad and other digital devices were also seized.

State Minister for National Security, Pearnel Charles Junior, lauded the correctional services and the police for the seizure.

Minister Charles says the Department of Correctional Services Officers who’ve been charged worked in consort with the inmates and outside persons to have the items illegally brought into the correctional centres.